Alice Pereira Becomes Youngest Ranked Woman as Allen Climbs to No. 4

The UFC Meta Rankings were refreshed after UFC Vegas 122 at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, and the update includes a record. Alice Pereira, a 20-year-old women's bantamweight, entered the official list for the first time and became the youngest woman ever to be ranked by the promotion.

A record debut at bantamweight

Pereira earned her place by stopping Darya Zheleznyakova with ground-and-pound, a win that ended in a retirement TKO. She debuts at No. 12, and Zheleznyakova drops out of the Top 15 as a result. The previous record belonged to Maycee Barber, who reached the rankings at 21 years old in December 2019.

Pereira's arrival also pushed Nora Cornolle and Macy Chiasson down one place each, to No. 13 and No. 14. Chelsea Chandler entered the list at No. 15, while Joselyne Edwards remained at the top of the division.

Allen moves up at middleweight

In the main event, Brendan Allen finished Christian Leroy Duncan with a late submission. That was enough to lift him one place to No. 4 at 185 pounds. He now trails only Nassourdine Imavov, Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev among the contenders chasing champion Sean Strickland. Joe Pyfer, who meets Bo Nickal in December, slipped from fourth to fifth to make room. Duncan fell one spot to No. 11, and Ikram Aliskerov moved up to No. 10.

The biggest climber of the week was Loopy Godinez. Her close decision win over Ketlen Souza moved her up three places to No. 8 at strawweight, pushing Piera Rodriguez, Yan Xiaonan and Mizuki Inoue each down a spot. At men's bantamweight, Bryce Mitchell gained a place to No. 14 while Marlon Vera dropped to No. 15.

The rest of the divisions were left as they were. The separate media rankings had not yet been updated when the Meta list was released, and those media rankings are expected to be phased out in the coming weeks.